Warwickshire: Woman in High Court sight battle

A woman who could lose her sight has been given permission for a test case at the High Court to try to get an NHS Trust to fund her treatment - reports the BBC.

Warwickshire Primary Care Trust refused to pay for Patricia Meadow's eye treatment, even though the drug is available in other areas.

The trust took a "resource-based" decision not to fund treatment, the court heard, meaning it has insufficient funding from central government to provide the care Ms Meadows needs.

Ms Meadows suffers from wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in her left eye, and dry intermediate AMD in her right.

There is no treatment for the dry condition, but there is hope that a course of the drug ranibizumab (trade name Lucentis) will save the sight in her left eye.

The High Court heard from her lawyers that objective medical evidence shows a course of the drug has up to a 95% chance of arresting her eyesight deterioration.

They said there was also a chance of it improving her vision and without treatment she could lose her sight in a matter of months.

Her case is being backed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Mr Justice Undershill gave permission for a judicial review to be heard within a matter of weeks.

David Lock, appearing for the PCT, said that Novartis, the manufacturer of Lucentis, was refusing to provide the support recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

He said: "Without the manufacturers support, Nice has clearly advised that this is not a cost-effective treatment.

He said the PCT had to balance a budget of £668m and it was impossible to meet all the needs of patients.

So while this is the case, why has the government agreed to giving the audit-failing European Union a massive and unreasonable 63% increase in payments, taking Britain's contribution to an astonishing £115 million (net) every single week?

It's people like Ms Meadows who are being forced to pay the price of the utter waste of huge amounts of public money on the EU.

Chichester: NHS bosses confirm hospital cuts

Health bosses have confirmed they will go ahead with the downgrading of St Richard's Hospital in Chichester - reports the BBC.

West Sussex Primary Care Trust (PCT) announced last week that Worthing would be the county's major general hospital, having full paediatrics, A&E and consultant-led maternity care

Emergency A&E and maternity services at St Richard's will be cut, forcing long travel times on those who require these services from the area served by the hospital.

The PCT has said St Richard's will retain 90% of its A&E services, with only patients with major problems, those needing emergency surgery and victims of serious accidents going elsewhere.

It said 50% would go to Portsmouth and 50% to Worthing, with the majority being taken directly by ambulance to the appropriate hospital.

However, journey times to those hospitals from the area covered by St Richard's are significant and highly vulnerable to traffic problems at rush hour.

One St Richard's campaigner told BBC South Today: "I often have to go in as an emergency.
"If I have to go to Worthing or Portsmouth it could be fatal."

The PCT said journey times had been taken into consideration when making the decision and it was aware that people in Selsey suffering serious accidents and requiring emergency surgery would have travel times greater than one hour at peak times.

But it said that, on balance, a much greater number of people would be adversely affected if the major general hospital was in Chichester.

Why the PCT has been forced into making this choice and there are insufficient public funds to keep adequate services at BOTH hospitals is the key question in this affair - and very likely due to central government wasting vast sums on other areas of spending.

For example, by sending £115 million every single week to the European Union, whose budget has failed its annual audit for 13 years in a row, and which has a terrible reputation for waste and fraud.

This is totally wasted money and far more than would be required to maintain services at St Richards. The government needs to decide which is more important - health services, or the European Union.

Campaigners for St Richard's are now considering whether to seek a judicial review of the decision.

Cambridge: Protest over ward closures

Protesters have marched through Cambridge to object to plans to close two wards at a hospital - reports the BBC.

A review of services at Brookfields Hospital, looking at the closure of 72-bed Davison House, ends on Monday.

Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) group, supported by the union Unison, held the march against the plans over the effect on elderly care.

The health trust said the closure of Davison House, which provides a rehabilitation service for elderly patients, was just one option.

Maidstone: Campaign to save hospital services

Local campaigns to save services in Maidstone Hospital are to be co-ordinated in a new organisation called MASH (Maidstone Action for Services in Hospitals) - reports the Downs Mail.

The group is already supported by Maidstone's two MPs, cabinet members of both Kent and Maidstone councils, Maidstone Division of the British Medical Association, the two main local newspapers the Downs Mail and Kent Messenger, together with patients and relatives.

Maidstone Hospital has several mountains to climb, including better management of C-Diff infections which killed more than 90 patients and led to a damning report by the Healthcare Commission.

While the hospital's record is now improving, reports still abound of A&E patients being "stacked" in ambulances due to serious delays in emergency admissions.

December saw a significant increase in the number of people waiting over four hours from a decision to admit to admission - 941 waited more than four hours, with 4 patients waiting more than twelve hours).

The main reason was said to be a lack of beds in A&E.

The hospital also has continuing financial problems, with the trust facing a deficit of £18.7m for 2008/09 and a total savings requirement of £21.2m - amounts that could be wiped out with two days' worth of our payments into the audit-failing European Union budget, if that wasted money were diverted into hospital services.

Call for hospital debt write off

A Surrey hospital trust's £56m debt should be written off to let it rebuild its reputation, a local MP has said.

According to the BBC, Reigate MP Crispin Blunt said during a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday that the size of East Surrey Hospital's debt was because of a delay in the transfer of acute services from Crawley to Redhill in 2001.

Prior to the meeting, Mr Blunt said: "Since 1998 the financial settlement for East Surrey Hospital has been the victim of government interference.

"The current deficit is over £55 million, the largest of any trust in the country" - an amount that could be wiped out with just 4 days' worth of our net contributions to the European Union's audit-failing budget, if the cash were diverted from being sent to that wasteful organisation.

Commenting on his demand that the government write off this debt, Mr Blunt added: "Only this can give the trust the financial footing on which it can begin to rebuild its quality of service and its reputation."

Health minister Dawn Primarolo said Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was one of 17 classified as "financially challenged".

She added that measures were in place to enable the trust to restore its finances.

But maybe if Ms Primarolo and the government of which she is a part didn't condone wasting so much public money on the audit-failing EU, she wouldn't have to force East Surrey hospital to take these financial "measures" which will very likely harm provision of essential health services.

Hospital downgraded in NHS revamp

Health chiefs have revealed plans to downgrade Bridlington hospital so that it will no longer treat heart patients or medical emergencies - reports the BBC.

The site will become a community hospital under proposals announced by the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Cardiac and acute patients will instead be treated at Hull or Scarborough.

Elsewhere in East Yorkshire, the NHS received news of a £20m funding boost, including a new hospital in Beverley.

However, this extra money - while welcome - is little more than a day's worth of money the government now pays into the EU's audit-failing budget at £115 million every single week.

The government investment will also fund a new healthcare facility in Hornsea and major refurbishment work at Driffield's Albert Bean Hospital.

So imagine what could be achieved with the equivalent of just one more day's payment to the EU, if our massive financial contribution to that audit-failing organisation were diverted instead to essential health services.

The investment is the largest single award in the latest wave of the Department of Health's £750m capital investment programme for community hospitals and services (NHS improvements being worth only six and a half weeks' worth of our payments to the EU, in the government's eyes).

On the future role of Bridlington Hospital, the Scarborough and North Yorkshire PCT said: "During the public consultation run by the trust earlier this year the support and passion for Bridlington Hospital was extremely well voiced by local people.

"Whilst recognising the level of public interest and concern...it would be neither prudent clinically, professionally nor financially to maintain services in their current format in the long term.

"Overall the number of patients served by both hospitals [Bridlington and Scarborough] is relatively small and having services duplicated across sites affects future sustainability of those services."

In September, health union officials warned that if the cardiac unit at Bridlington was closed, lives would be put at risk as patients would have to travel further for treatment.

Earlier this year, the trust revealed it intended to cut 600 jobs in an attempt to reduce its £20m deficit and cut costs.

But the losses were averted at the last minute after an agreement was reached between the trust and the strategic health authority to write off the debts.

Norfolk: Bed crisis sparks hospitals alert

Hospitals across the east of England have been placed on "black alert" as staff and wards are overwhelmed by high patient numbers - reports the BBC.

Non-urgent cases have been sent home after up to 10 ambulances were left queuing outside one hospital.

Few or no beds are free at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, and the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, both in Norfolk.

People with minor injuries have been urged not to attend A&E.

The alert status means plans designed to enable staff to cope with major incidents, such as terrorist attacks and train crashes, are put into action.

At the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), which announced it had reached the emergency status on Wednesday afternoon, managers worked with other agencies to discharge non-urgent patients from the 1,000-bed hospital to create space.

However, the hospital said that between 60 and 70 beds were still being blocked because patients who were medically fit to leave had no where to go.

Paramedics treated patients in ambulances outside the NNUH on Wednesday evening.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: "Most things we can manage - it only becomes critical to get someone out of the ambulance and into the hospital if someone is bleeding to death or in full cardiac arrest needing resuscitation.

"There were serious condition patients but they were being treated at the NNUH by hospital staff."

NNUH spokesman Andrew Stronach said there was no single incident that brought on the beds crisis.

"It's just general run of the mill problems, like chest pains, collapses, diarrhoea and vomiting."
The James Paget hospital and the Queen Elizabeth in Kings Lynn said there were sufficient beds, but a sudden change in the weather was putting extra pressure on them.

Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, said the hospital was regularly well above the safe occupancy level of 85%.

He said: "If there was to be a flu epidemic this winter then we've got a major crisis.

"Across the country we're seeing occupancy rates increasing. There's also evidence that you run an increased risk of hospital acquired infections if you've got a hospital that's literally full.

"This is a serious problem and yet there appears to be nothing being done to increase the capacity to ensure that there's enough beds to treat patients."

Milton Keynes and Hertfordshire health officials have said they are not on alert, but Bedford Hospital has been on red alert since Friday.

In Suffolk, Ipswich Hospital said it had very few beds but was managing the situation and a spokesman for the West Suffolk Hospital said its alert had been caused by sickness bugs.

Norfolk MPs Norman Lamb and Henry Bellingham can fairly claim to be doing their best to ensure local hospital services have the facilities and resources they need to avoid situations like this developing - by opposing the payment of an extra £7bn to the audit-failing European Union.

However, Tony Wright MP for Great Yarmouth and Ian Gibson MP for Norwich North both voted on Monday to approve this unjustifiable extra multi-billion-pound spending on the wasteful EU, so can hardly claim to be doing their best for essential local services.

Local voters need only wait a likely 18 months for the next general election, to let them know what they think of such irresponsible decision-making.

'Inadequate care' in half of A&E trauma cases

Less than half the patients admitted to accident and emergency departments with severe injuries get adequate care - according to the Daily Telegraph.

A Government-funded report has found that 20% of hospitals have no dedicated trauma team and that care standards drop significantly at night, adding that trauma patients are being treated by inexperienced staff who display little urgency and make incorrect clinical decisions.

The Government is expect to seize on the findings to support a White Paper published last year advocating centralising trauma care in specialist regional centres, at the price of local A&E departments.

Critics suspect the proposals are more about cost-cutting than patient care and say the move could see 29 hospitals closed. They argue this will jeopardise the survival of patients, who will be put at risk by travelling the extra distance to a trauma centre.

Their fears are backed by recent research which suggested that mortality rates increase by 1% for every extra six miles travelled.

Commenting on the report, Dr Jonathan Fielden, of the British Medical Association, said: "It must not be taken to support closing local units, it should be used to improve patient care. There need to be more consultants employed in the NHS to lead trauma teams."

The report, "Trauma: Who Cares?", published today by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, says hospital trusts must ensure a trauma team is available 24 hours a day with an experienced consultant as leader.

Sadly this is unlikely to be affordable while MPs splash so much public cash on the audit-failing European Union.

On Monday, MPs voted to approve a massive £7bn increase in funds, taking our annual EU payments to an astonishing £10.5bn gross every year.

But while the "majority" of the EU's spending remains unverifiable by auditors, and reports of EU waste and fraud continue, there is absolutely no justification for rewarding the EU with such a huge increase in payments.

No wonder the government is having to consider centralising trauma care in regional centres, instead of properly equipping local A&E departments. Where are our MPs' priorities?

London: Health summit paves way for abolition of traditional hospitals

A major health summit is taking place today will change the face of the NHS in London, reports the Evening Standard.

Senior managers and doctors are meeting to draw up plans that will abolish traditional hospitals.

They are finalising a major consultation document that asks every Londoner to decide if GPs should move into big polyclinics.

Patients will be asked a series of crucial questions - signed off at today's meeting - that will lead to the massive changes next year.

They will be asked about the centralisation of services such as trauma care, treatment of children and the care of stroke victims should be centralised away from local hospitals into so-called "specialist" centres.

And whether more maternity departments should be run by midwives instead of doctors.

The consultation will be launched at the end of the month and is likely to trigger battles to
save local services.

Bosses have refused to name the hospitals and surgeries that should close and are consulting on "ideas" first.

Robert Creighton, chief executive of Ealing primary care trust, and one of the leaders of the consultation, said: "We want to get people's views about the proposals and we intend genuinely to listen to what the public have to say."

But doctors have warned that the plan is being driven through. Dr Stewart Drage, head of Londonwide Local Medical Committees, said: "We have reservations about this whole process. We are concerned that the local input is going to be very limited."

It comes as campaigners find out the results of a consultation to downgrade Chase Farm hospital in north Enfield.

Thousands have been fighting plans to move A&E and maternity services to Barnet and North Middlesex and make Chase Farm a community hospital.

The summit meeting into changes across the capital - taking place at the Sofitel hotel near St James's Park - could mean the plans for Barnet and Chase Farm change again.

The proposals are based on plans drawn up in the summer by junior health minister Lord Darzi, who is now leading a nationwide review of the NHS.

Questions must be asked as to whether these changes are being driven more by attempts at cost-cutting than to enhance patient care.

With MPs voting an extra £7bn to the European Union completely without justification on Monday of this week, public funds for essential services are becoming increasingly tight.

It's time MPs looked again at the real priorities of those they represent, before they give final approval to this multi-billion-pound funding increase to an organisation that has failed its annual audit for 13 years and is beset by reports of needless extravagance, waste and fraud.

Come next year, it'll be no good MPs posturing in protest against hospital closures in their constituencies if they've voted to waste such vast sums of public money on the EU. They will be personally responsible for the money running out, and themselves can expect to pay the price at the ballot box.

Norfolk: Flagship hospital at full capacity

Norfolk's flagship hospital last night reassured patients that it was open for emergency admissions and routine operations, despite reaching maximum capacity - according to the Eastern Daily Press.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was yesterday placed on the highest state of alert following a large volume of admissions over the weekend.

Three other East of England hospitals, including the West Suffolk Hospital at Bury St Edmunds were also classed as being on “black alert” following an unusually high number of patients being transferred to Accident and Emergency and Emergency Assessment Units.

Officials at the Norfolk and Norwich yesterday urged local GPs to look into alternative treatment plans for their patients and to avoid referrals as much as possible, whilst the hospital aimed to speed up discharge arrangements for those medically fit to leave in a bid to address the “critical” bed capacity issue.

However, the hospital confirmed that scheduled operations would continue as usual and there were currently no plans to turn away emergency admissions to the James Paget Hospital at Gorleston and Queen Elizabeth Hospital at King's Lynn, which are at amber and green alert levels respectively.

Hospitals at Hinchingbrooke, Cambridgeshire, and Peterborough were also placed on black alert, whilst Ipswich and Addenbrooke's, in Cambridge, were on red alert - the second highest pressure score.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital spokesman Andrew Stronach said it had been an “extremely busy” weekend for emergency admissions and equally busy yesterday with GP referrals, which had no link to bonfire night celebrations or any winter bugs.

“We are full. There is no more room in the inn, so we make sure that we can discharge as many patients as we can and free up beds for emergencies. If GPs can manage their patients without admitting to hospital, that would be much appreciated.

“There is no rhyme or reason to it. It was just a high volume of medical illnesses and surgery cases over the weekend and today (Monday),” he said.

Mr Stronach added that it was “not particularly unusual” for the flagship hospital to be on black alert and had been in the same situation 27 times last year.

Hospitals can be placed on black alert for a variety of reasons such as a rapid rise in emergency admissions, severe lack of beds, low staff numbers, or system failure and can be resolved in the most extreme cases by stopping new admissions, routine operations and transferring new patients elsewhere.

Jonathan Cook, director of corporate services for Norfolk Primary Care Trust, said: “We are confident that we have robust procedures in place to ensure that we deal with these emergency admission problems appropriately and assist the Norfolk and Norwich by avoiding non-urgent GP referrals.

We continue to work with our colleagues at the hospital and will monitor the situation extremely closely.”

A spokeswoman from the West Suffolk Hospital added: “We are on black alert because of an unusual high volume of A&E admissions, but these things happen and we are coping with it.”

Lewisham: Rally against cuts to hospitals' A&E

A call has been made for South-east Londoners to join a protest against cuts and changes in hospital and health services - reports icSouthLondon.

Greenwich Unison and campaign group Keep Our NHS Public are urging people to join a national march and rally on Saturday.

Proposals for the region have provoked widespread anguish and have been slammed by MPs for being "a step too far".

In the past year the hospitals have made millions of pounds worth of savings and cut hundreds of jobs.

Last month, recommendations that emergency and critical care should be axed from two of the region's four cash-strapped hospitals were revealed.

The proposal came out of a review of health services in Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley led by the boroughs' primary care trusts.

In the document A Picture of Health, the trusts outlined their aim to save cash and improve services by relocating some hospital treatments to centres closer to people's homes and by concentrating specialist services in fewer hospitals.

No firm decisions have been made but a key consideration is likely to be the economic argument to keep full services at the hospitals with the biggest private finance debts - Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and Princess Royal in Bromley.

Watford: Doubt raised over super hospital

Health campaigners have asked where the money to rebuild Watford General is going to come from following another damning report into the state of local NHS services and the resignation of the man in the charge - reports the Watford Observer.

The new report comes just days after health chief David Law resigned as chief executive of West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust.

Mr Law, the man who was in charge of Watford General for three years, quit his £120,000-a-year post last Friday evening after a report, by the Healthcare Commission, slammed the state of local health services.

The trust has been dogged by poor hospital standards and huge debts and last week was given a double "weak" rating when it came to the quality of service it provided - putting it in the bottom 5% in the country.

This week, another official health report, this time by the Audit Commission, found the trust remains £11 million in debt - one of just ten trusts across the country more than £10 million in the red.

The annual review graded trusts on a range of financial measures, including value for money and financial management.

The trust was given a "one", the lowest possible grade, meaning its finances are "inadequate".

Health campaigner Jean Brett has questioned whether the trust can now attract investment to pay for the £300million redevelopment of Watford General.

She said: "With problems like those highlighted in the Audit Commission, do they really think anybody is going to put forward the money for that trust as part of a PFI development?

"This is one more nail in the coffin for the PFI."

Watford MP Claire Ward said: "I have indicated to the Strategic Health Authority that I will not support the appointment of any chief executive who does not give full support to Watford Health Campus. This project is essential to the future development of the NHS in my constituency."

However the hypocritical Ms Ward herself is not giving all the support she could to the potential development, given she intends to quietly approve a £7bn increase in funding to the audit-failing EU when the European Communities (Finance) Bill comes before Parliament for approval.

Ms Ward can hardly claim to be standing up for local public services if she plans to support the waste of vast sums of public money on an organisation that hasn't been able to explain how the "majority" of its budget has been spent for thirteen years running.

Waste in one area of public spending - especially of sums as large as £7bn - inevitably means consequences elsewhere. If Ms Ward supports the EC (Finance) Bill, only she will be to blame for insufficient health services in Watford.

NHS repairs 'backlog' hits £4bn

NHS trusts have a £4bn backlog of key maintenance repairs which range from fixing heating to meeting fire safety rules, reports the BBC.

Government figures suggest the backlog is eight times this year's much-heralded NHS surplus, which was achieved by making a variety of cuts.

"Backlog" repairs are those needed to bring NHS property in line with various standards.

They include repairing roofs and fixing drainage, but do not cover painting wards or replacing furniture.

It is large city hospital trusts which have the greatest backlog, according to Hospital Doctor, which first reported the details.

"The truth is that the NHS surplus, which the government enjoys boasting about, is a sham," shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said.

"Public health budgets, education and training budgets and now the basic maintenance and upkeep of our hospitals have been laundered to produce this surplus."

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said urgent maintenance work that will affect patient care "is always prioritised", but he added that making this decision was up to the local NHS trust concerned.

Watford: Hospital trust rated 'weak'

The NHS trust in charge of Watford General Hospital has been rated as weak in its quality of service and financial management - reports the Watford Observer.

The Healthcare Commission's annual health check found West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which looks after Watford General, St Albans City Hospital and Hemel Hempstead General Hospital, failed to provide the necessary service to patients and continues to be weak at managing its finances in 2006/07.

This assessment follows the 2005/06 report that also found the Trust to be weak in both service and financial management.

West Sussex: Campaigners march over NHS cuts

About 14,000 people have taken part in a demonstration over NHS plans to reorganise West Sussex hospitals, reports the BBC.

Campaigners say the turn-out in Haywards Heath made it the largest NHS protest in the county to date.

Under NHS restructuring, only one of three West Sussex hospitals will remain a major general hospital, the county's primary care trust (PCT) has said.

Singer Vera Lynn was among those who took part in the protest.

She told the assembled crowd: "We need our hospital. We must have it, and it is essential we fight for it."

West Sussex has hospitals in Worthing, Haywards Heath, and Chichester.

The protest on Saturday was to show opposition to downgrading Accident & Emergency and maternity services at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

Campaigners said 70,000 people had now signed their petition, thousands had attended public meetings, and 180 GPs had spoken out against the plans.

But the PCT said centralising services would make more expertise available.

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames said the continuing fight by residents was "inspiring" and the rally was "another major opportunity for people to show their total opposition" ahead of the conclusion of the public consultation in mid-November.

The rally comes a week after several hundred people took to the streets of Uckfield to show support for the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, and Uckfield Community Hospital.

After the protest in Uckfield, PCT chief executive John Wilderspin said: "We will be keeping many services in our local hospitals and increasing the amount of care we provide in GP surgeries and patients' own homes.

"We are proposing to develop a major general hospital for West Sussex, providing specialist services such as a main A&E department, the consultant led maternity unit and emergency surgery."

London: Hospital cuts 'step too far' say MPs

Doctors and nurses have recommended emergency and critical care should be axed from TWO hospitals - reports the South London Press.

The aim is to cut costs and improve services for the one million residents of South-east London.

The surprise outcome was the result of months of discussions by 100 clinicians from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, Lewisham Hospital, Queen Mary's Sidcup (QMS) and Bromley Hospitals.

It was expected they would suggest that one accident and emergency department should close.

Shocked MPs have described the proposal to reduce the number of acute hospitals to two in the area as too drastic and a "step too far".

The medics were asked by the primary care trusts to consider ways specialist services could be concentrated at fewer sites.

As outlined in their document, A Picture of Health, the PCTs also want to provide many hospital treatments closer to people's homes.

No decisions on which hospitals will be downgraded will be made until the outcome of a review into how extra services in the community could be provided and a public consultation is held.

John Austin, MP for Erith and Thamesmead, said: "Reducing major acute trauma centres in South-east London from four to two is a change too far."

Eltham MP Clive Efford said: "I would not support any relocation of services until there are sufficient alternative services in place that are seen to be meeting people's needs."

Manchester: MP defiant over hypocrisy claims

Health minister Ivan Lewis has denied he is a hypocrite after supporting a shake-up which includes the closure of a maternity unit he campaigned to save - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Last year, the Bury South MP joined a march aimed at keeping full maternity and children's in-patient care at Fairfield General Hospital.

But he has now backed the decision of an independent panel to close four of Greater Manchester's 12 maternity departments, including Fairfield.

Mr Lewis called criticism a smear campaign and said it was unfair and untrue because he has always accepted doctors' arguments that the current system was unsafe.

He said that although he believes there is a strong geographical argument in favour of a full service for children at Bury, his constituents will benefit from the £60m investment that comes with the shake-up.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claimed Mr Lewis had bowed to pressure from Gordon Brown to back the cuts.

He said: "This is an incredible U-turn by Ivan Lewis. Only a few months ago he was campaigning to save his local maternity services. Ivan Lewis has been squeezed by Number 10. Either that or he is indecisive in the extreme."

Maternity units in Trafford, Rochdale and Salford will also close by 2011 because of a shortage of specialist staff.

Sharron Entwhistle, from Fairfield Baby Lifeline Society, which led the support for the unit, said: "Ivan Lewis has supported us and we are grateful for that - as a result of our campaign we have won concessions.

"I don't think he is a hypocrite but as a health minister he should have a lot of influence and we believe he could have done more to help - whether he could have made more of a difference, who knows?"

Norfolk: Protest at hospital closure

Today more than a thousand letters from people in Norfolk appealing to the government to intervene and save a much-loved cottage hospital will be handed to the Westminster.

April Pond, Lib Dem parliamentary spokesman for Broadland, will give more than 1,100 letters from Norfolk residents concerned about the proposed closure of St Michael's hospital in Aylsham, to the Department of Health.

The letters have been sent to April over recent weeks, many with added notes of personal experiences of the care at St Michael's, and they appeal directly to Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, for his help in saving the hospital, which was the only one targeted for closure in a shake up of Norfolk PCT services.

Ms Pond said: “The Department of Health has told us that health care decisions should be made locally, but we are saying that by ordering the repayment of the huge deficit the Norfolk Primary Care Trust has in less than a year, a huge pressure is being brought by the department to cut and close much needed and much loved local hospitals.

“We feel Norfolk is being badly treated and ask for Alan Johnson to intervene.”

Trust warns of £15m hospital debt

Swansea NHS Trust says it faces going £15.5m into the red unless it closes 86 beds and cuts around 750 jobs - reports the BBC.

Amicus and British Medical Association staff officials say the move is needed to safeguard services and patient care but Unison said it was "unacceptable".

The union has called for a halt to the bed closure programme claiming it was being driven by "financial cut-backs and not any planned improvements in health care".

The trust, which currently employs 9,500 staff and manages health services across the city including Morriston and Singleton Hospitals, claims it could be £15.5m in debt by the end of this financial year.

It said it has been able to avoid large debts in recent years through "one off" savings but now needed to introduce a programme of clinical efficiencies.

It said around 750 posts would go over the next three years through "natural wastage" and it would reduce 86 beds from around 1,800 that are currently used.

Yorkshire: NHS chiefs tackled over job cuts

Union officials are to meet NHS bosses for talks over cost-cutting measures that could see hundreds of jobs axed at Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals, in Yorkshire.

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, needs to plug a £15m shortfall in its budget by cutting 600 jobs.

Ward closures and reductions in non-clincal support services are also threatened.

Unison said it feared the job cuts could be as high as 1,000 out of a total workforce of 2,500.

Brenda Lloyd, Unison's branch secretary, said: "How can they hope to provide good health services to people in this area with this level of cuts?"